The Masses (periodical)/Volume 1/Number 1/Let the Truth Be Known

by Charles Edward Russell

LET THE TRUTH BE KNOWN
By Charles Edward Russell

 

No man that believes in the essentials of freedom and justice, no man that believes the courts should be kept immaculate from petty spite and malice, no man of any faith in free speech and a free press can think he has done his duty until he has made by all means in his power his utmost protest against the conviction of Fred Warren.

If the sentence in this case can be carried out it is not too much to say that at any time hereafter any man that becomes obnoxious to the power of wealth or that criticises an administration can be railroaded to jail on any trumped-up charge.

It is evident then that here is a fundamental issue. We are back again facing the old question of basic human rights. If the precedent of the Warren case be established no ruler of mediæval times ever had a more efficient gag upon the utterances of his subjects than a national administration at Washington can use upon its critics.

The country at large is not informed about the successive steps of the case and the fate that now overhangs Warren, because the press will not publish the facts about the matter. Therefore the duty of every believer in justice is to see that the facts are widely spread. In every town of the country public meetings should be called to protest against this intolerable wrong. See that your neighbors learn all about it. Give them the history of the case. Let them understand the principle involved. Show them that whereas the Supreme Court of the United States held the kidnapping of Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone to be right and proper, Warren is now to be imprisoned for suggesting that the process thus upheld by the Supreme Court be used in another case. The man that will not mentally revolt against an injustice so rank as this is no American and no good citizen.

See that these facts become universally known. If you are a member of a union make it your business to call the attention of all your union brothers to what is purposed in this case. Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone were the victims of an organized warfare upon unions. Warren is suffering in the union cause. Do not let the union haters have their way with him.

Enter your protest. Keep your own conscience clear. If you let Warren go to prison without objecting you are helping the interests that are trying to pull him down.—Charles Edward Russell, in The Coming Nation.